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From The Times
August 26, 2006

Pancake video mix rises to pop fame

By David Lister, Scotland Correspondent
A STUDENT spoke of his bewilderment yesterday after finding overnight fame filming himself making pancakes.

James Provan, 23, shot the two-minute film as a tribute to his favourite snack but was astounded by the response after placing it on the internet.

Within three days it had received hundreds of thousands of hits and was shown to about six million viewers in the US when it featured on Good Morning America, ABC’s breakfast television show.

It has now also been seen by television viewers in Sweden and Australia, while a song that accompanies it, composed by Mr Provan on his keyboard, has shot to number 3 in the Israeli radio charts.

The film, which took only a week to make in Mr Provan’s home in Aberdeen, has now been seen by an estimated 10 million people online. The video, which can be downloaded free on the YouTube website, shows him jumping out of bed and then cooking pancakes. It was filmed using a home video camera on a tripod.

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Mr Provan, who is about to start his second year studying computer science at Aberdeen University, said yesterday that he was stunned by the video’s success. “The fact the song is in the charts is the most random thing I have ever heard. It is very exciting and I have already had various companies contacting me to ask if I would be interested in directing their TV adverts and internet videos.

“It took me a week to make, and then I put it on YouTube on August 13. Almost immediately I got an e-mail from ABC’s Good Morning America asking for permission to feature it on their programme.”

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